Description

The first in a new series of five books describing and illustrating the seminal architectural traditions of the world, Antiquity traces architectural history from its very beginnings until the time when the traditions that shape today’s environments began to flourish.

More than a catalogue of buildings, in this work Tadgell provides their political, technological, social and cultural contexts and explores architecture, not only as the development of form and space but as an expression of the civilization within which it evolves. The buildings are analyzed and illustrated with over 1200 colour photographs and 400 drawings while the societies that produced them are brought to life through a broad selection of their artefacts.

Reviews

'[The first in] a grand survey of the whole of world architecture.' - The Times

Table of Contents

PROLOGUE: ORIGINS ; Sentient Man At Home; The Fertile Crescent And The Neighbouring; Nile Valley; Settlement To Town; Religion: Earth-Mother And Sky-God; Neolithic Europe; PART 1 WEST ASIA AND THE EASTERN MEDITERRANEAN; 1.1 THE FERTILE CRESCENT AND THE NILE VALLEY; Introduction: Civilization And Architecture; Materials And Structure; Ornamentation And Design; 1 Sumer; Religion; The Tripartite Plan And The Temple; Secular Power And Kingship; The Palace; The Early Dynastic Temple; 2 The Old Kingdom Of Egypt; Egyptian Cosmology; Pharaonic Egypt; The Old Kingdom Succession; Pharaonic Continuum; From Mastaba To Pyramid; From Pyramid To Obelisk; 3 Mesopotamian Empires; Ur: Sacred Compound; Ur: Town And House; Ur’s Sumerian Successors And The Palace; The Temple In The Early 2nd Millennium BCE; Amorites, Trade And The East; The Indus Valley Civilization; Assur, Mari And Babylon; 4 Theban Kingdoms Of The Nile; Gods And King; Houses For The Living And The Dead; The New Kingdom And Empire; Hiding The Tomb; Amplifying The Temple; The Royal Cult Temple; The Palace; The Town: Grids And Zoning ; 1.2 THE AEGEAN, ANATOLIA AND THE ARYANS; 5 Minoans And Achaeans; Crete; Minos And The Bull; Cretan Cataclysm; Achaeans And Trojans; The Triumph Of Reason; The Hittite Anatolian Order; Citadels And Sanctuaries In Ancient Anatolia ; 1.3 ISSUES FROM A DARK AGE; 6 Levant; The Dark Age At The Turn Of The Second Millennium; The Bit-Hilani; The Hebrews; 7 Sabea; Sabea And Axum; 8 World Empire; Assyria And Babylon; Seats Of Assyrian Power; The Fall Of Assyria And The Neo-Babylonians; The Achaemenids And Their World Empire; Seats Of Achaemenid Power ; PART 2 PRE-COLUMBIAN AMERICA; Introduction; 2.1 MESOAMERICA; 1 The Pre-Classic Era Of The Olmecs; Olmec Centres; Olmec God, Man And Mediator; Olmec Legacy; 2 Classic Achievement; Common Beliefs; The State; Siting And Planning; Ubiquitous Form; Type And Style In The Orbit Of Teotihuacan And Monte Alban; Classic Mayan Idiosyncrasy; Late-Classic Mayans; 3 The Post-Classic World Of The Toltecs And Aztecs; The Northern Chichimeca And Their Progeny; Mexica Aztecs; 2.2 THE ANDEAN LITTORAL; Introduction; The First Horizon; Tiahuanaco And The Middle Horizon; The Late Horizon Of The Inca; Inca State And Hierarchy; Inca Religion; Inca Building; The Temple; Complex And Town; PART 3 THE CLASSICAL WORLD; 3.1 HELLENIC ORDER; Introduction: Hellas And Hellenic Society; The Olympian Gods; Early Temples; Hellenic Settlement; Towards Democracy; The Polis; The Persian Menace; Philosophy; Mathematics,Music And Mysteries; 1 The Ordering Of Architecture; The Anthropomorphic Ideal Of Order; Ionic Inception; 2 Doric From Archaic To Classical; Western Colonies; Refinement Of Proportions; Truth Versus Appearance; The Ideal And Vitality; 3 Periklean Apogee; The Propylaea; The Temple Of Nike And The Erechtheion; The Sanctuary Of Dionysos; 4 Planning And Technology; The Development Of Formality; Housing; Building Technology; 5 Polis In Crisis; Platonic Rationalism; Aristotelian Empiricism; Eclecticism And The Advent Of Corinthian; Praxiteles And Lysippos; Internal Embellishment And Ambiguity; 3.2 MACEDONIANS AND THE EAST; Introduction; Divine Monarchy; Transformation Of The Hellenic Ideal; Tombs And Monuments; Ionic Apotheosis; 6 Late-Classical Planning And Defence; The Theatre; Housing; Defence; Pergamon; Mixed Orders; 3.3 REPUBLICAN ROME AND ITS MENTORS; Introduction: Legend, Arms And Mores; Greeks And Etruscans; Absorption Of Etruria And Destruction Of Carthage; Rigour And Religion; Political Discipline ; 7 Etruscan Legacy; Houses And Tombs; Temples; From Temple Precinct To Urban Order; 8 Hellenization And Engineering; Eastern Conquest; Republic In Crisis; Early Hellenistic Roman Building; The Hellenized Roman Town And Public; Building Types; Decoration And The House; Mass Housing; Engineering And Building Technology; Materials; 3.4 AUGUSTAN ROME AND ITS EMPIRE; Introduction: From Caesar To Constantine; Augustus; Imperial Succession; Expansion And Decline; The Cult Of The Emperor; 9 Augustan Rome And Vitruvius; Vitruvius; 10 Form And Imperial Style; The Theatre And Its Articulation; Scenography; Mannerism; Rococo; Parthian Postscript; 11 Mass And Imperial Space; Concrete Space; The Apotheosis Of The Villa; Thermae; Decoration; Baroque Mass; Sassanian Digression; Palace And Basilica In The Age Of Diocletian; PART 4 CHRISTIANITY AND EMPIRE; 4.1 ROME AND NEW ROMES; Introduction: Constantine And The Dominion Of Christ; Christianity In Context; Retreat; From Proscription To Prescription; Authority; Doctrine And Debate; Neoplatonism And The Light Of God; Liturgy; Icon And Iconoclasm; Christian Building Types: The Roman; Inheritance; Constantinian Building; The Basilica; Baptistery And Shrine; Hybrids; 2 Division And Late-Imperial Rome; The Eternal City Eclipsed; Building Under Constantine’s Successors; Roman Standards; Milan; Ravenna; 3 Early Imperial Byzantium And Diversity; The Orbit Of Constantinople; The Aegean Littoral; Asia Minor; Syria; Egypt And North Africa; Baptistery; 4 Beyond The Pale: Ethiopia; The Church In Axum; The Late-Axumite Church; Lalibela; Gondar And Tana ; 4.2 JUSTINIAN AND THE APOTHEOSIS OF BYZANTIUM; Revival In The East; Justinian Splendour: Basilica And Dome; Cross And Dome; 5 Consolidation And Standardization In The East; From Domed Basilica To Quincunx; EPILOGUE: THE LAST HALF MILLENNIUM OF BYZANTIUM; Introduction; The Prevalence Of The Quincunx; The Iconic Panoply Of Heaven; From Contraction To Organic Development; GLOSSARY; FURTHER READING; MAPS; The Achaemenid Empire, C. 650–330 Bce; Egypt, C. 2500 Bce; The Hellenistic World; The Roman Empire, C. 100 Ce; The Christian World, 700–1050; The Incas; The Aztecs; INDEX

About the Author

Christopher Tadgell taught architectural history for almost thirty years before devoting himself full-time to writing and research, travelling the world to examine and photograph buildings from every tradition and period.

About the Series

Architecture in Context is a series of seven books by Christopher Tadgell describing and illustrating all the seminal traditions from man’s early settlements in the Euphrates and Jordan valleys to the technologically complex and stylistically sophisticated buildings of the second half of the twentieth century. In a synthesis of extraordinary range, it brings together the fruits of a lifetime of teaching and travelling the world, seeing and photographing buildings. Each stand-alone volume sets the buildings described and illustrated within their political, technological, social and cultural contexts, exploring architecture not only as the development of form but as an expression of the civilization within which it evolved.

The series focuses on the story of the Classical tradition from its origins in Mesopotamia and Egypt, through its realization in ancient Greece and Rome, to the Renaissance, Neo-Classicism, Eclecticism and Modernism. This thread is supplemented with excursions to cover the development of architecture in Central America, India, South-East Asia, and the Islamic world.

For students of architecture and art history, for travellers and for readers who want to understand the genesis of the buildings they see around them, each volume provides a complete, readable and superbly illustrated reference.